Ben Affleck’s Batman finds its Deathstroke in Joe Manganiello

While Ben Affleck’s solo Batman film is a long ways away, there is already someone waiting to take on the Dark Knight of the DC Extended Universe.

Affleck posted some cryptic test footage last week of someone in the Deathstroke costume from the London set of the Justice League, which many took to mean that the assassin also known as Slade Wilson would be making at least a cameo appearance in the upcoming mega blockbuster.

Another thing that popped up was that True Blood and Magic Mike actor Joe Manganiello happened to be in London around that same time the video was posted. That and retweeted Affleck’s video.

Don’t worry though, we can end all speculation of that right now as it was confirmed by the movie’s co-writer, and recently appointed DC Entertainment co-president and head man in charge of the DCEU, Geoff Johns in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that Manganiello is indeed playing Deathstroke in the upcoming Batman film. It wasn’t said if Deathstroke is appearing in Justice League in any capacity as Johns had declined to comment on that rumor. Not much else is known about Affleck’s Batman project other than what we already know at the moment

Manganiello then took to Twitter himself later on and responded to the news.

Deathstroke is known by many comic readers as the first big enemy of the Teen Titans during the legendary New Teen Titans run by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez back in the 1980s. Deathstroke though has gone on to be the adversary of many DC Comics heroes, notably Batman and Green Arrow. Deahtstroke has also gone on to have several solo books of his own as well.

This won’t be the first time Deahtstroke will have been adapted into a live action project. He was a key figure in the first two seasons of Arrow where there were two Deathstrokes. Slade Wilson of course being played by Manu Bennett, but another one on the island known as Wintergreen, often an associate of Slade’s in the comics, played by Jeffrey C. Robinson. He even made an appearance in the final season of Smallville played by Michael Hogan.

How excited are you to see Batman tango with Deathstroke? What do you think of Joe Manganiello in the role? Good or should it be someone else? Let us know in the comments below!

I was born a young geeky child down in Texas, but raised in Arkansas. I am an aspiring writer across multiple mediums, particularly film. I adore stories be they film, TV, comics, novels, video games, shorts, whatever fascinates me to read, watch, or play, I'm into that. I also love telling people about stories.